During May, our chickens laid 108ish eggs, of which 68 made it to the house. I say 108ish because, last month I said I suspected there was a nest in the barn. Well, I finally found it and it had a dozen or so eggs in it, but they were all broke. The nest was between two bales of hay, which I moved apart. I don’t know if they’ll find a new spot now, or what.
At the beginning of the
month, one of our hens wasn’t do so good.
And after a couple of days, she died.
In previous months, I’d said that one of our hens was at the bottom of
the pecking order and I think wasn’t getting enough stuff for strong eggs. She was the one that died. Like I said, they’re getting kind of old, so
it wasn’t that surprising. I had hoped that
that would be the end of me finding broken eggs, but it turns out we do have
one hen that eats them. Well, I think
she just eats her own. I don’t know if
she was the one laying in the barn, but when I disrupted her she came back to
laying in the coop. Whatever the case, I’m
still pretty annoyed with it.
The last note about eggs,
is it was the last week of May 2023 that I started keeping track of eggs. Well, I kept track of how many eggs made it
to the house. And even though we’ve lost
a couple of hens since then, the numbers aren’t that much lower.
Other updates, the onions
that had started to grow over winter and that I planted in pots to try to
transplant out, all died. Most died
before I had a chance to transplant them, and the two I did transplant didn’t
survive. I guess I’ll just have to make
sure I dry any onions I get this year so they last through the winter.
Last month, I hinted at
two upcoming stories, one about lettuce and one about something else. The lettuce one I’ll have to write up a post
in a week or so. The other one … will
take a lot more work. It’s something I’ve
tried several times over the years, but without any luck. And circumstances demand I try again, hopefully
with better luck. If I do have any luck,
I’ll write about it.
Something I forgot to
mention last month, was that I had started some seeds indoors. I started a zucchini, a cucumber, and a pumpkin. I also tried to start a watermelon, cantaloupe,
and a squash that germinated but almost immediately died. Well, this month I transplanted the zucchini,
cucumber and pumpkin. I also direct planted
another zucchini and squash, but they haven’t germinated yet. I didn’t direct sow any watermelon or
cantaloupe because my sister finally gave up trying to garden in her … bog, so
we needed garden space for her plants. But
she had a watermelon and cantaloupe, so hopefully they do well enough that we
can get a couple.
May was a very busy time in
the garden. I also direct sowed some parsnips,
peas, green beans, kidney beans, corn, and beets, as well as some onion sets. All of them are up, unfortunately, something –
probably a rabbit – went to town on the peas. I plant a double row of peas, and then put stakes
on the outside and run line for them to climb up. I hadn’t done that when I found the damage,
so I put in the stakes and ran the line pretty close together at the bottom, so
hopefully the rabbit will look elsewhere for a meal. I’ll probably sow in some new seeds to fill
in the gaps.
I’ve also planted some marigolds,
sunflowers, and some other flowers. Some
of the sunflowers were up, but then something – rabbit? – ate them. I was thinking of replanting some sunflowers,
but putting some type of cover over them so they would get some size before
something could chew on them, but I’ve been so busy I haven’t had a chance to do
that yet.
Other plants we got at a
greenhouse. We got tomatoes, green peppers,
broccoli, and cabbage. All have been
transplanted in, with the last thing – the tomatoes – going in on the 31st. So far, the only problem I’ve had is that
something dug up around one of the cabbages to get at the compost I buried next
to it. To stop whatever digging up the
other plants, I didn’t put any compost with them when I transplanted. Instead, I’ll spread it out in the path above
them and work it in. But that will have
to wait until I have time to do it.
